The Story of Love and Secrets

“Her husband. A thief, a highwayman, a criminal. A coldhearted killer.”

FINAL DECISION: I loved this book because of the timeless nature of the love between the hero and heroine. It feels like they were always fated to find one another.

THE STORY: Farah Leigh Mackenzie is an innocent widow who is working as a clerk in Scotland Yard. As a child she loved a boy with whom she was in a orphanage. She was devastated when he died in prison. Now seventeen years later, she meets Dorian Blackwell, the Blackheart of Ben Mar who is a criminal mastermind who worked his way into being one of the wealthiest and influential men in England. Dorian offers Farah the opportunity to avenge her lost love (with whom Dorian was in prison) and deal with a secret that Farah herself has. All she has to do is marry him.

OPINION: This story is built on a sad story of Farah’s lost love. When she meets Dorian, she begins to find that this scarred and hardened man is more complex than she imagined. His friendship with her childhood loves convinces her to trust him and ultimately to marry him. Dorian has emerged from his childhood and young adulthood, scarred both on the outside but also on the inside. His life has compelled him to do bad things, but he is vulnerable to the sweet innocent Farah.

I thought the setup for this book was wonderful. The angst, the drama, the conflict was so good. The weakness of the story is that too many extremely painful parts of Farah and Dorian’s lives are too quickly resolved. What saved the book for me was that the two acknowledged that there will be days of darkness to come.

This book also has interesting secondary characters, some of whom will be the subject of later books.

WORTH MENTIONING: I am a fan of historical books that don’t take place in society ballrooms.

CONNECTED BOOKS: THE HIGHWAYMAN is the first book in the Victorian Rebel series.

STAR RATING: I give this book 4.5 stars.

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